


Missing Stiles

by howl-to-the-wind (greenleaf)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Fic, Alternate Universe, Emails are the way to go, Everyone Misses Him, Fluff, M/M, Pack Dynamics, Pack Family, Stiles is Away, The pack can't function without stiles, long distance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-04-29 14:35:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5131211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greenleaf/pseuds/howl-to-the-wind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because when Stiles was away, the whole pack missed him…</p><p>…Derek, most of all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Missing Stiles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Venivincere](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Venivincere/gifts).



> First of all, to my giftee, I do apologize if it looks like I did not deliver through on any of your lovely, inspiring prompts. I sincerely hope you enjoy this.
> 
> Thanks to Lovely for the super fast beta.

When one had a genius boyfriend like Stiles, one got used to certain things, such as being a little lost during conversation; having to Google certain things to at least be a little culturally updated; and being judged by some of Stiles’ snooty colleagues when they found out you hadn’t graduated college, worked as a mechanic, and had a huge house where you, a man in his thirties, lived with various young adults in their mid-twenties.

(It didn’t matter that his business was going well enough to warrant six garages, or that he built the house from the ground up, or that he saved the lives of all of those young adults, literally, from werewolves, kanimas, hunters, and things they’d never even dreamt of.)

But most of all, when one had a genius boyfriend like Stiles, one got used to having said boyfriend be away for multiple days or weeks a month on some conference, seminar, or the other as he shared his knowledge and charmed the world.

…Well, it wasn’t like Derek was _really_ used to these things.

Because no matter how it seemed like the topic was way over Derek’s head, Stiles still found a way of including him in conversation. Because Stiles never made him feel stupid, never made him feel like he had to measure up, or that he was lacking. Because Stiles found Derek just as smart and witty in the areas he was personally good at. Because those snooty upstarts were just colleagues who didn’t know better and not Stiles’ real friends, no, because Stiles was a good judge of character and would never willingly associate with anybody who made Derek feel bad.

So yeah, it wasn’t like Derek actually had a reason to get used to these things, because Stiles loved him and that was all mattered.

But that last bit, about Stiles being away so often, that one was a whole different something that Derek was never, ever getting used to.

Hey, it wasn’t just him though. You should see his pack.

 

 

**1\. Scott**

Stiles’ frequent trips all over and even out of the country had become a common thing for the pack over the past four years. He was twenty-six now, but even halfway through college he was already being invited here and there and everywhere. Sometimes he even had their other lovable genius, Lydia, in tow as they traveled and conquered the world with their frightening intellect.

(The normal, human world that is. They’d kind of already conquered the supernatural world, what with how many alliances they’d both cultivated for the Hale pack since high school and the number of creatures they’d taken down.)

Anyway, the pack was proud of Stiles, but didn’t make his trips any easier. One day he was there, and then when everyone woke up or even before anybody got to sleep, he had already packed his bags, his laptop, his files and walked out the door. He never left without saying goodbye, which was comforting, and always made sure to leave a little something for the pack to know that he was going to miss them and, most importantly, that he was coming home to them as soon as possible.

In recognition of his latest trip _outside_ of the country (insert exclamation points, crying, wailing and mournful howling here), Stiles decided to leave popsicles, the really expensive kind that could only be bought from that fancy-schmancy ice cream parlor at the other side of town.

Derek took one look at the freezer, took out two for himself and John, and then hid them in the vegetable crisper where he knew no one else was going to go snooping around in.

“Stiles left ice cream!” Derek called out as he walked into the living room.

“Ice cream!” Isaac, Erica, and Jackson immediately left their Wii game and disappeared into the kitchen before Derek could even blink.

Derek waited. Scott and Allison didn’t come running.

There were only a few of them in the pack house today. Boyd was in charge of the garage, Danny had a meeting with a client, and both Lydia and Kira were out with their families. John and Jordan were at the station, Melissa was at the hospital, and Chris was out of town to see relatives. The rest of them had days off.

If Derek wasn’t listening, he wouldn’t have heard him.

“When are you coming home?” Scott’s voice drifted down very, very quietly from the third floor where his room was. Derek also vaguely heard Allison snoring softly.

Uh-oh.

Derek ran up the stairs.

“Scott!” he shouted and burst into the room.

Scott was on the bed and ignoring his impending doom, instead concentrating on the person on the other line. “What? But that’s too long! You said you’ll be back sooner than that!”

“Scott McCall,” Derek growled, stomping inside the room. “No long-distance phone calls!”

He felt a little guilty when Allison, who was sleeping soundly, jerked up in surprise, but his head was filled with thoughts of Scott’s no-doubt outrageous cellphone bill, which _Derek_ paid.

“But, Stiles,” Scott pouted at what he was hearing. “I really miss y-”

“Drop that phone right now.” Derek walked up to Scott’s side of the bed and tried to grab the phone. Scott scrambled towards Allison’s side of the bed, shimmied over her as she watched them sleepily, and then flattened himself against the wall and away from his Alpha’s reach.

The bed was shaking so much Allison gave up all desires of getting back to sleep and watched as her Alpha unceremoniously stepped on Scott’s pillow in his haste to get to him.

“Derek, I’m going to shoot you if you step on me,” Allison said, stifling a yawn. “And I don’t really like Scott’s pillow smelling like feet.”

Derek jumped over Allison as Scott darted towards the door. Claws and fangs came out as he roared. “Scott! Drop that phone! How many times have we told you? No international calls!”

All the way on the other side of the world, Stiles winced at his Alpha’s shouts. When he saw the caller ID, he knew better than to answer Scott’s call, but his best friend tended to act like a kicked puppy in more ways than one at the thought that Stiles would be too busy to talk to him.

It looked like they were going to take a while though.

Stiles hung up, sighing.

 

 

**2\. Isaac**

Derek had revoked Scott’s phone privileges until Stiles’ eventual return, whenever that would be, and the beta had been sulking on the couch for two days now.

“Don’t worry so much, Scottie,” Erica said, not really trying to comfort the small bundle bringing bad vibes to the room. She patted him on the head condescendingly. “Stiles is going to come home as soon as he’s done whatever it is he’s supposed to do.”

That didn’t seem to make the situation any better. Scott sank deeper into the couch.

“Well, I think it’s cute that they miss each other,” Melissa said as sat down beside Scott, who pouted and crossed his arms.

“Stiles will be fine,” Allison said, tugging Scott to stand up. “Come on. Let’s go out for a while and take your mind off things.”

Scott sighed, but nodded agreeably.

The couple walked out and it wasn’t long before they heard the sound of Scott’s bike as they drove away.

Out in the backyard, Derek was training with Boyd, Jackson, and Isaac. He wiped his sweaty face against his arm as he watched the three do drills. The first two were doing well, but Isaac seemed out of sorts.

Derek wasn’t surprised. Scott might be the most vocal about missing Stiles, but that didn’t mean he was the only one who actually missed him. Isaac, one of the more sensitive pack members, also took it to heart whenever Stiles, or anybody else really, left the pack for extended periods of time.

Derek waved a hand, cutting the drills to a close. “Pair up. Isaac, you’re with me.”

At times like this, it was much better to take Isaac’s mind off things when he was in this kind of mood.

Derek should have known though, because only three minutes in and Isaac was on the ground after being too distracted to avoid a swipe from Derek.

“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Isaac cried out as he curled up on the ground. Derek, Jackson and Boyd were beside him in seconds and inside the house Erica was already calling for Melissa.

“Sorry, pup. Sorry.” Derek winced, running his hands through the Beta’s hair as Jackson and Boyd siphoned pain from him. He made a face at the three bleeding lines spanning across Isaac’s left side.

“Sorry, too. I was distracted,” Isaac said, gripping his Alpha's arm.

“Isaac,” Melissa called out worriedly, motioning for them to come inside.

“I’m okay,” Isaac called out as he let Boyd and Jackson pull him to stand. “But injuries from Derek really hurt.”

Boyd shook his head. “That’s gonna sting for a while.”

“A long while,” Jackson said not-so-helpfully.

Derek winced guiltily, but Isaac sent him a weak smile.

“I’ll be fine, Alpha. No worries.”

Derek hovered worriedly and tucked Isaac against his side as they sat on the couch and let Melissa patch up the injured Beta. Isaac kept whimpering and whining at the pain, especially after figuring out that it would take around four hours for the wound to heal since it was inflicted by an Alpha.

Derek was apologetic, but Isaac said it was fine. He still seemed saddened though and Derek knew it was because Stiles wasn’t around. He was the best at patching up and cheering up wounded werewolves.

Erica plopped down beside Isaac, grimacing apologetically upon jarring the injured male, and placed her laptop on the coffee table in front of him.

“Here,” she said, motioning to the device. “Since we can’t exactly call Stiles - because a certain someone banned us from using phones, not to mention we don’t even know what his schedule is at that seminar thingy - why not email him instead? You can use mine.”

Isaac looked at Erica with watery eyes. “Thanks,” he said weakly. Derek rubbed his head comfortingly and sent Erica a proud smile.

Erica looked pleased, but covered it up with a snort and nodded. “Facebook would have been easier, but we all know Stiles isn’t really active on there; he probably won't even see it.”

(That was actually a tidbit about the tech-savvy man that shocked almost everyone he met, but the pack knew Stiles was actually notoriously private. Plus he couldn’t exactly post pictures of everyone given the whole wolf eyes versus red eye thing.)

For the rest of the day, Derek stayed beside his injured Beta and watched as Isaac composed a rather lengthy email to Stiles.

Then Erica wanted to send a video of them.

Then Scott and Allison came back from their date and Scott started whining until Allison helped him compose one.

Then John wanted to send one too after he came home from his shift at the station.

Derek sighed. Well, at least Stiles wasn’t going to run out of things to read.

  

If there was one thing on this good earth that Stiles was thankful for, it was Wi-Fi, especially when one was so far away from home.

And when he opened his Mail, he wasn’t really surprised at the amount of e-mails he had received. He already expected Derek to ban the pack from using their phones, so it was just a matter of time before they got it into their heads to send him emails.

Stiles read each one, all sweet and lovely and made him miss home even more. Practically the whole pack sent him one, even his Dad sent him one using Erica’s email. (He knew Erica was his Dad’s favorite, after Derek that is.)

He made sure to reply to each one and emphasized that he was coming home _soon_ and not to cause Derek much grief.

Just as he was about to log out – it was already a little past midnight anyway – his laptop beeped with one last email.

Stiles smiled at the sender and the rather brief, but succinct, email.

He replied with a simple: _“I’ll come home to you as soon as I can. I love you always. P.S. Don't kill the pack.”_

He logged out and got ready for bed.

 

 

**3\. John (…but that’s understandable)**

“The pack just misses him. You didn’t have to ban them from the phone,” John said as he walked down the aisle, Derek following close behind with a cart. He read the shopping list the pack made, grabbed a box on the shelf, and tossed it in the cart. Stiles had been adamant about everyone knowing how to shop for groceries for the whole pack. That way, no one had excuses about not being able to help out when doing the shopping.

“They’re emailing him now. They can miss him without costing us money,” Derek said, maneuvering the cart past a teenage couple.

“Oh, and what do you call me and my phone plan?” John asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“You’re his father. You’re the exception,” Derek immediately said. “You have every right to talk to him.”

“You don’t even have a phone plan for yourself, and you’re his boyfriend,” John commented as they walked down another aisle.

Derek flushed, the way he always did whenever John acknowledged their relationship.

“It’s different. I know he’s doing good work and learning a lot. I don’t need to call him every minute,” he said softly. “I miss him every day, of course I do, but I know he’d come home to me, to us.”

John hummed in agreement, continuing to scour the shelves for a decently-priced can of tuna. He smiled at his son’s boyfriend – practically husband really – words, but he knew that deep down Derek was just being god-awful stubborn... and somewhat of a martyr.

“Stiles did email us his schedule for the coming days,” John said, “something the whole pack has been pestering you about. I don’t mind sharing my minutes to let the pack talk to him.”

Derek sighed, obviously giving in. “We’ll probably have to time them.”

John rubbed his chin. “True. Five minutes at the most is probably good enough.” At the look on Derek’s face, he raised his hands. “Fine. Ten minutes. I reserve a half hour. I’m still his Dad after all.”

Derek sighed again, but finally agreed.

John nodded, satisfied, and patted the man on the back. “Now, let’s go get some more greens. If you think those kids won’t find our popsicles in the vegetable crisper, trust me, it won’t work, not when Scott, Isaac, Erica and Jackson keep throwing out the vegetables when no one’s paying attention.”

 

Derek had to admit that John was right though as he listened to Stiles’ laughter and jibes as he talked to each member of the pack.

When it was his turn, Derek felt his chest tighten with a somewhat bittersweet feeling upon hearing Stiles’ voice.

_“Hey there, handsome. Missed me?”_

“Every damn day. I love you.”

_“Love you too, always.”_

 

 

**4\. Lydia and… Jackson?**

Derek knew it was actually a matter of time before Lydia snapped.

Lydia and Stiles were like two peas in a pod. Derek would be jealous if he wasn’t so sure that Stiles loved him and that they were both as platonic as platonic could be.

It's just that being apart from Stiles didn’t really suit Lydia. It wasn’t that Lydia thought of the pack as idiots – although she did, on most days – but in some ways, Stiles was the only one who could keep up with her, especially when she was in a mood and needed some _intelligent_ conversation to soothe her.

So Derek wasn’t all too surprised when Lydia stomped into the kitchen, furious as could be, and demanded that Derek find a way to bring Stiles back. NOW.

What surprised Derek though was when Jackson came stomping in after her shouting for the same thing.

“Um…” He looked between the two. The others, Danny, Kira, and Jordan, were looking at the scene with interest.

“Anymore chick flicks and I will start growing boobs, I swear to God!” Jackson shouted. When everyone in the room glared at him, he scoffed. “Okay, fine, sorry, my bad, but I cannot watch ‘The Notebook’ or ‘Princess Diaries’ or ‘Miss Congeniality’ anymore! Bring Stilinski home!”

Jackson stomped off and Lydia screeched after him about ungrateful, idiotic boyfriends.

…okay, so it appeared that _movies_ were the cause of the issue and not… er, intellect.

“Those are wonderful movies, Jackson, you idiot!” Lydia screeched. Thankfully not her banshee screech or else they’d have to replace every glass and window in the house.

“Wow,” Kira muttered.

“Now that I think about it,” Jordan piped up. “I’ve never watched Miss Congeniality before.”

“I did,” Danny said, “but I haven’t watched the second movie yet.”

Derek wasn’t too proud to admit that he was the first to run away, especially when Lydia turned their way with a gleam in her eyes.

 

 

**5\. Everybody else**

In case anybody was wondering, it wasn’t as if the others didn’t miss Stiles. They did.

It’s just that they weren’t _that_ crazy.

…er, not much?

 

Stiles frowned as he checked his phone. Despite the series of phone calls he got a few days ago, he knew Derek still kept a tight leash on any international calls. So it was surprising to see that he had received dozens of texts and voice messages.

  
_From: Boyd_  
_Stiles, I know you’re busy and whatever but as soon as you can, come home. I hate 50 First Dates._

  
_From: Scott_  
_Duuuuudeeee Lyds is crazyyyyyyy!!!_

  
_From: Erica_  
_I will drag you home myself Stilinski!!!_

  
_From: Kira_  
_You’re a really hard worker and good student, Stiles. I’m sure they can let you off early. We miss you. So please come home._

  
_From: Isaac_  
_Lydia is making us watch EVERYTHING!!!_

  
_From: Danny_  
_I will hack her account and ruin her credit limit, Stiles. Don’t think I won’t._

  
_From: Jordan_  
_Two words: COME HOME._

  
_From: Allison_  
_I’m actually enjoying myself, but I do hope you’ll come home soon. For everyone's sake. Miss you!_

  
_From: Jackson_  
_Lydia is ruining everything! I love her, but why couldn’t you have brought her with you!!!_

  
_From: John and Melissa_  
_Son, you really should talk to Lydia. Even I’m feeling sorry for the pack._

  
_From: Derek_  
_Call Lydia. Please. I love you always._

  
He sighed and walked off to talk to his mentor. Maybe he could find some way to cut his seminar early.

 

 

**+1. Derek**

Stiles told everyone that he was coming home on Thursday, but everyone knew that by Monday, Derek had already packed a bag, relinquished the garage to Boyd, and left the pack to Lydia and John's capable hands.

Because there was a difference between Stiles coming home to the _pack_  and Stiles coming home to _Derek_.

See, the thing is that bit about Stiles being away so often, that one was actually something everybody knew Derek was never, ever,  _ever_ going to get used to.

But if anything, Derek was patient. He’d stay at home or at his garage or all over Beacon Hills and be perfectly content to look after their home, their pack, until Stiles came home to them. That didn't mean he _liked_ it.

So nobody said a word as Derek bade them all goodbye and drove off on a sunny Monday morning.

And a few hours later, with his leather jacket on and a key card for a private and luxurious hotel room in his pocket, Derek would stand and wait at Arrivals until he saw the right flight come in. A few minutes later, he’d see a familiar head of hair, hear that familiar heartbeat, smell that familiar smell over the stale airport air, and Derek would feel alive for the first time since he waited at Departures weeks ago.

Stiles’ smile was bright and beautiful as he walked towards Derek. He looked tired and smelled of so many other people, but he was here and Derek could finally breathe again.

“Hey, handsome.”

Derek tugged him forward and spoke against those sweet lips. “I love you.”

Stiles kissed him. “Always.”

Because when Stiles was away, the whole pack missed him…

…Derek, most of all.


End file.
